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I was at the library with no list of what i wanted to read, so was just browsing the shelves and randomly selected this book.  It caught my eye - how not, with a title like that?  So i checked it out to give it a try.

The book is the diary of Earl Summerfiend.  There is an entry for every day of the year, starting January 1.  The setting is San Francisco and must be sometime in the mid 70s, based on the context clues.  

Earl begins the year as a rather depressed and deluded individual.  He’s extremely negative about the state of the world and the people who live in it.  However, he’s very optimistic, if deluded, about the direction of his career.  But over the course of the first six months, a number of small injustices occur, at work and in his personal life, and we watch him become more depressed and deluded.  He starts roaming around at night and getting a thrill by going into people’s houses.  (Doors were not often locked.)

He commits the rape on July 4th.  He has stalked her ever since he first saw her receiving some kind of award, and continues to harrass her by phone and mail.  After the rape, he becomes increasingly paranoid and angry.  His rants are more hateful than the first 6 months of the book, but are generally about the same subjects.  It actually becomes quite boring, and i skimmed much of the 2nd half of the year.  

I can’t say i recommend this book.  Earl’s descent into madness was mildly interesting, if only to see how such a mind would rationalize his actions.  And he did have some mildly interesting rants about the state of our culture.  But, given the title of the book, it was difficult to let myself identify with him, even when he did have some valid points.  Once he committed the rape, however, i could no longer read his words and think they had any merit.

I finished the book, skimming most of it, only to see what would happen to him.  Curiosity answered, i eagerly grabbed the next book on my pile, hoping it would be a good book, for once.  It seems i’ve been on a stretch of difficult or not enjoyable books.

21 is a the movie version of the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich.  I read it last year and wrote a short review in this blog.  It was an extremely fun and fast-paced book.

The movie was also fun.  But it wasn’t as gripping.  Or believable.  Remember, the book was based on a true story.  The movie changed some of the main plot lines to accomodate the “hollywood angles,” and it really lost some of its appeal.  For example, the casino basement scenes with people getting beaten up??  That doesn’t happen.  And they are simply not allowed to physically detain you - if they suspect you of counting cards, they can ask you to leave and that’s it.

I also found myself confused at the end.  Did the team make a bunch of money on that last night or not?  Was it all stolen, or had they properly accounted for variable change?

Also, it would have been more realistic to show them actually losing some big hands sometimes.  Just because you count cards, doesn’t mean you’re not going to lose a lot of money sometimes.  The edge they were working with was still pretty small - not big enough to guarantee you’ll win every hand.  But i guess that would be too confusing for the general populace

All in all, it was an enjoyable movie, though.  Kevin Spacy was awesome, though i would expect no less.

One other thing - i was intrigued to see the Monty Hall problem presented early in the movie.  Here it is:

You’re on the gameshow Let’s Make a Deal and are present with 3 doors.  You’re told behind one is a brand new car, and behind the other two are goats.  You choose a door, say Door A.  Monty (who knows which door the car is behind) then reveals what is behind Door C - a goat.  And he says to you, i’ll give you a chance to switch your choice to Door B.   Do you switch?It’s a fascinating problem if only because so many people get it wrong.

Two Christmases ago, my mom gave me a Mary Kay Starter Kit.  It’s the intro kit for new consultants.  It came with a bunch of great free product, but also, the ability to purchase MK products at cost.  This is awesome, b/c the markup on their products is a full 100%.  And i was a pretty consistent customer of their skin-care line.

So, if anyone happens to have a need for MK supplies and wants half-price, let me know in the next week.  I do a big order once a year and stock up for myself, and i’m inviting you to take advantage too. 

The only downside so far with this Mary Kay thing is that the annoyingly perky consultant who is above me in the ’tree’ occassionally calls me to try and get me revved up about being a Mary Kay consultant.  I think she talks to me so infrequently, or has a lot of people beneath her, because she forgetes my answers between calls.  One of their most common and persuasive arguments is - “Do you love your job?  No?  How would you like to do something every day that you just loved?”  I think i throw her off when i say yes actually, i do like my job.  And it pays well.  And by the way, my job is not in sales, which i know i’m not good at.  And no matter how you slice it, a Mary Kay consultant is in sales.

She usually refuses to be beaten (you have to admire her spirit) and leaves me with a goal to schedule a class before the end of the next month.  OK, chica, whatever.  Talk to you next month, when i still won’t have sold anything.  Ta-ta!

Orson Scott Card is a one of my favorite authors.  Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow remain two of my favorite books.  His followups to those books were mostly OK too.  Before Homebody, I’d read just one other book by him, Enchantment, which was, well, enchanting.   But a buddy of mine read another book by Card which he really did not like, and that somewhat dissuaded me from reading more.

I’m glad i took a chance on Homebody.  This was another random library selection.  And it seems like a normal book at first.  A guy with a haunted soul starts to renovate an abandoned house.  The reader is teased - is the house haunted, or not?  It’s fun and spooky to explore the history of this house with Don, the main character.  I won’t give away anything, but would definitely recommend the book.

As i mentioned a post or two ago, i have read a lot of tough books lately.  So i totally devoured this one when it didn’t suck.  Fast read - i think it only took me a day and a half.

I missed last month’s book club meeting because i was sick.  At the meeting, it was decided that the next book would be The Eyre Affair.  Makes sense; we just finished Jane Eyre.  However, I wish the circumstances were reversed.  I would have loved to discuss Jane, but i didn’t really care for this book too much.

Warning to any book clubbers who haven’t finished: spoilers below.

First, the good.  The world is rather interesting.  It’s a parallel universe to our own, except the main form of entertainment is literature, which everyone takes quite seriously.  Cloning is normal (the dodo is the trendy pet to own).  Time-travel happens isn’t unheard of.  And a machine has been built that will allow you to enter into a book and interact with the characters.  It’s all quite fascinating, really.  And the character names were quite humorous.  Our main character is a woman named Thursday Next (i kept trying to call her Next Thursday).  The annoying-but-not-very-effective boss of our hero is Braxton Hicks.  Acheron Hades is, of course, the really bad guy.  The pretty bad guy is named Jack Schitt.

The bad.  I was bored for the first two-thirds of the book, until we finally got around to Jane Eyre.  For a book named The Eyre Affair, frankly there wasn’t enough of Jane.  I was also bored with the whole war in Crimea.  I think the author wanted the reader to take it seriously and realize it was a defining part of Thursday.  However, it didn’t feel real to me.  Another thing - there was no chemistry between Thursday and Landon.  I was actually hoping she would end up with Bowden, and there’s something wrong with the story when i’m rooting for the wrong guy.  But the biggest issue for me was the lack of character depth.  We go a little bit into Thursday’s character, but not deep enough.  I prefer my characters to be complex.  I prefer my villains to have shades of grey.  Acheron Hades was totally unbelievable and uninteresting in his desire to be evil for evil’s sake.

I did really get into it when Jane Eyre showed up.  So the last third of the book was pretty enjoyable.  However, i probably won’t continue following Thursday on her future adventures.

caputured a memorable “mile”stone (har har har) as i passed it.

I love my car. It’s a good car. No major problems. And no car payments! Can’t beat it.

My parents visited this weekend.  Dad had meetings and stuff to do while Mom hung out with us all day.  I love my mom dearly, but sometimes i think our relationship should be by phone only.  On the phone, she listens.  And conversations have purpose, even if they are light and chatty.  In person, it’s like some part of her brain turns off and she becomes… disagreeable in a friendly way.  AKA passive aggressive.

I know, i know, it’s so cliche for a woman to think her mother is a passive-aggressive nag.  But i feel like i just realized it.  She’s always had some annoying quirks, but it’s never quite gotten to the point where i realized, Damn, my mother’s behavior is really annoying!

Me: How about we go out to dinner in an hour?
Mom: Sure!
[elapse 30 min]
Mom: You look busy.  [We weren't.] We don’t have to go out to eat.  We can just order pizza.
Me: OK, what kind of pizza do you want?
Mom: I don’t care
Me: OK, how about pepperoni?
Mom: Only one topping?  I don’t like pizza with just one topping.
Me: OK, what toppings do you want?
Mom: I don’t know…

At this point i tell her we’re getting two pizzas, because i can see two pizzas will be the easiest way to get her to tell me something.  She obviously doesn’t want to be an ungracious guest by dictating the pizza toppings for just one pizza, although she apparantly has no qualms naysaying the Universal Fallback Choice For Pizzas.

They left today.  I’m sure we’ll have a great phone conversation later this week.

An error message i ran into yesterday at work while troubleshooting a problem:

“error: not running no java”

Highlight of my day.  

The first week of my new job is finally over. I like it, i do, but man i needed the weekend. I slept like a log last night.

This week, i: started a new job and worked a lot more than i normally do, juggled responsibilities & transition stuff from the old job, learned vi (and a BUNCH of other little things i need to know for the new job), gave my first toastmaster’s speech, played bridge twice, and prepared the house for my parents’ visit this weekend. That seems like a short list in comparison to how i felt when it was over; i was exhausted.

It’s been a tough week, and mostly because of the job stuff. But i’m extremely glad i’m not with my old group anymore. The politics & bullshit surrounding them has just gotten out of control.

Next week is bound to be better.

Number of computers in my house right now: 7 (only 1 of them is not plugged in)

Number of people: 4

Number of laptops: 4 (2 normally, 1 from work, 1 belongs to mom)